History

The nuragic culture of Sardinia (approximately 1800-238 BCE, when Sardinia was conquered by Rome) is unique among the cultures of the western Mediterranean Bronze Age in its production of a distinctive architectural type — the nuraghe (pl. nuraghi) — a truncated conical tower built in dry stone using the corbelling technique. Approximately 7,000 nuraghi survive across Sardinia (many more may have existed), ranging from single towers (the simplest type) to complex multi-tower fortifications like Su Nuraxi. The function of the nuraghi is debated: defence, chieftain’s residence, religious site, and territorial marker have all been proposed; the larger complexes like Su Nuraxi, which combine a fortified tower with a substantial village, suggest a political-administrative function (the residence and administrative centre of a local chieftain or chief).

Su Nuraxi was excavated between 1950 and 1957 by the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu (1914-2012), the most important Sardinian archaeologist of the twentieth century, who spent his career documenting and interpreting the nuragic culture. Before Lilliu’s excavations, Su Nuraxi had been covered by a large mound of earth that accumulated over the abandoned site; the excavation revealed the quadrilobate bastion and the village for the first time since antiquity. Lilliu’s work established that Su Nuraxi was not a single-phase construction but had been built, expanded, and rebuilt over approximately 800 years (1600-800 BCE).